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Antanas Poška

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Antanas Poška
Antanas Poška in 1967
Born(1903-03-24)24 March 1903
Pasvalys,Russian Empire
Died16 October 1992(1992-10-16)(aged 89)
Vilnius,Lithuania
Resting placeAntakalnis Cemetery[1]
NationalityLithuanian
Other namesAntanas Paškevičius
Occupation(s)Anthropologist, journalist
Known forMotorbike journey to India (1929–36)
Member of theEsperantomovement in Lithuania
Notable workFrom the Baltic Sea to the Bay of Bengal
Righteous
Among the Nations
By country

Antanas Paškevičius – Poška(24 March [O.S.10 March] 1903[2]– 16 October 1992) was a prominentLithuaniantraveler andanthropologist,as well as an active member of theEsperantomovement in Lithuania. He is best known for his journey to India in 1929–36. In India, he studiedSanskritand received bachelor's degree in anthropology from theUniversity of Bombayand wrote his PhD thesis at theUniversity of Calcuttaon theShina-speakingpeople but was unable to defend it. He interacted with India's intellectual elite and participated in anthropological expeditions. He met withRabindranath Tagoreand translated some of his works into Lithuanian. Poška returned to Lithuania in 1936 and worked as a journalist. He was recognized as theRighteous Among the Nationsfor hiding threeLithuanian Jewsduringthe Holocaust in Lithuania.After the Soviet takeover in 1945, he refused to destroy books deemed unacceptable to theSoviet regimeand was imprisoned in aGulag.Unable to return to Lithuania, Poška later worked at several museums in Central Asia. He was allowed to return to Lithuania in 1959 and worked as a lecturer and journalist and continued his anthropological studies, but his past as a political prisoner prevented him from taking a more prominent position. By age 60, he had visited 75 countries and 120 nations.[3]Poška was a prolific writer contributing articles to Lithuanian and foreign press. His bibliography, published in 2006, has 3,756 entries, but his main work, the eight-volumeNuo Baltijos iki Bengalijos(From theBaltic Seato theBay of Bengal) on his experiences in India, was published only in 2002–12, a decade after his death.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Gripkeliai village, around 1940

Poška was born in 1903 in the family of farmers in northern Lithuania, in the village of Gripkeliai ofPasvalysdistrict. His interest in Esperanto emerged as early as 1913, when he received his first Esperanto textbook as a gift.[4]He learned the language independently and in 1917, during World War I, a German soldier noticed him reading an Esperanto book. The soldier shared addresses of Esperantists and Poška began corresponding with many intellectuals.[4]These connections proved vital in his later travels.[5]Poška became an active member of an Esperantist group inSaločiai.[2]Still a schoolboy, Poška began submitting articles to the Lithuanian press. His parents disapproved the various activities and he moved out toKaunasin 1921.[2]

In Kaunas, Poška lived in a dormitory maintained byŽiburėlissociety[6]and worked odd jobs, including construction, while attending an evening school.[2]In 1922, he visitedVeisiejaiand collected memories of locals aboutL. L. Zamenhof,inventor of Esperanto.[4]In 1923, he attended theWorld Esperanto CongressinNuremberg,Germany, and a year later received an Esperanto teacher certificate from theLithuanian Ministry of Education.[4]In 1926, when the first Lithuanian radio station opened in Kaunas, Poška hosted a regular Esperanto-language programNia anguleto.[4]In 1926–29, Poška studied medicine atKaunas University.Poška started traveling in Lithuania and abroad rather early. In July 1925, he completed his first bike tour across Lithuania with three friends.[2]Three years later, he procured a motorbike and set off on a trip around theBaltic Seavisiting 12 countries. With its completion an ambitious idea to reach India was conceived.[2]

Journey to India (1929–36)[edit]

Poška at theTaj Mahalin 1931–32

Intrigued by linguistic similarities between theLithuanianandSanskritlanguages, Poška decided to travel toIndiato study Sanskrit, research Indian culture, and explore Lithuania's cultural links with India.[3]He chose to travel on a motorbike, which he obtained from the Belgian manufacturerFNfor free in exchange for publicity.[2]While preparing for the journey, he got acquainted with another dedicated travelerMatas Šalčius,a journalist by profession, who was much older and already an experienced traveler.[6]The duo started their motorbike trip on 20 November 1929 fromKaunas.[7]The travelers first reached Constantinople then Cairo and continued via the Middle East. They took very little money, 69 U.S. dollars combined, and had to find ways of making money along the way.[7]They financed the trip by giving lectures on Esperanto, Lithuania, and other topics as well as submitting articles and photos to Lithuanian and foreign press.[7]However, the relationship between Šalčius and Poška deteriorated as they faced financial troubles and mechanical problems.[8]While inTehran,Poška became severely ill. Šalčius abandoned Poška and later did not mention him in his memoirs.[8]Poška received help from local Esperantists and spent about half a year recovering.[4]He then boarded a ship inBushireand arrived inBombayon 23 March 1931.[5]

With the help of local Esperantists and intellectuals, includingJivanji Jamshedji Modiand N. A. Thooti, he enrolled into theUniversity of Bombay.[5]In 1931, he visited theUniversity of Varanasifor 42 days to studySanskritand begin his translations ofBhagavad GitaandRigvedainto Lithuanian[5](manuscript ofBhagavad Gitawas lost; translation of Rigveda is kept at theMartynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania).[9]In 1933, Poška completed bachelor's degree in anthropology with thesis on theAryans,their origin and migration. After graduation, Poška moved toCalcuttaand enrolled in theUniversity of Calcutta.While visitingMohenjo-daro,he met professorBiraja Sankar Guhawho invited him to work at the Anthropological Laboratory of theIndian Museum.[5]

A tribal woman from theAndaman Islands,picture taken by Poška in 1935

The Lithuanian press widely reports that in 1933, Poška accompaniedOxford UniversityprofessorAurel Steinon an anthropological expedition to theTaklamakan Desertin Central Asia.[5][6]However, in 1932–36, Stein exploredPersia.[10]In 1933–36, he participated in anthropological expeditions inSoutheast Asiaand theHimalayas,where he collected data aboutShina-languagespeaking peoples of northwestern Himalayas.[5]In 1935, Poška with a team of young scholars from the Indian Museum went for a three-month expedition to theAndaman and Nicobar Islandsled by the Australian scholar Dr. M. E. Smith.[5]They traveled to various parts of the archipelago and studied the local aboriginal tribes. Poška and his team gatheredsomatometricmeasurements and other anthropological data on the lifestyle, habits, and customs of the local inhabitants.[5]

While in Bengal, Poška actively interacted with Calcutta's intellectual elite, university professors, and young researchers:Biraja Sankar Guha,Himangshu Kumar Bose, Achyuta Kumar Mitra, Bajra Kumar Chatterji and others. He also befriendedSuniti Kumar Chatterjiwho later embarked on a comparative studyThe Balts and the Aryans,exploring the commonalities between India'sVedicand theBaltic pagan rites.[9]Published as a monograph by theIndian Institute of Advanced Studyin 1968, this Chatterji's book is dedicated to, among others, Antanas Poška.[11]Friendship with the renowned Indian EsperantistSinha Laksmiswarled Poška toShantiniketanwhere he had a chance to interact withRabindranath Tagore.[12]Under Tagore's personal supervision, Poška translated some of Tagore's poems into Lithuanian; some of these manuscripts reemerged in 2013 when a woman gave them to Poška's daughter after years of safekeeping from Soviet censors.[13]Poška metMahatma Gandhitwice (in Bombay andAllahabad) and conveyed the support of the Lithuanian people toIndia's independence struggle;[12]Gandhi presented Poška with a decorative hand-made cloth that he preserved despite various hardships.[3]

In 1936, Poška submitted his PhD thesis in physical anthropology under professorBiraja Sankar Guha,titledPhysical Affinities of Shina-speaking People of the Western Himalayas.[12]However, he did not have a chance to defend it and the dissertation was lost. He was awarded posthumously an honorary degree in 2014.[12]

Later life (1936–92)[edit]

Poška left India in 1936. On his way back to Lithuania, he covered Afghanistan, Iran, andTurkish Kurdistan.In Turkey, he wrote an article on theKurdsand their aspirations for which he was arrested and escorted 318 km (198 mi) in chains to Bulgaria in June 1936.[5]He was released, but most of his possessions and research materials, including the translation ofBhagavad Gita,were confiscated and never recovered.[5]He spent some time in Bulgaria, where he collected accounts of the locals on Dr.Jonas Basanavičius,one of the founding fathers of independent Lithuania, who had lived in Bulgaria at the end of the 19th century.[5]

Poška returned to Lithuania just before Christmas 1936.[5]In 1937–40, Poška worked as a journalist with the newspapers and magazinesAkademikas,Lietuvos aidas,Trimitas,and was editor-in-chief of the newspaperDarbas.In 1937–40, he served as the Chairman of the Lithuanian Union of Esperantists.[14]After his return to Lithuania, Poška started writing his account of the Indian journey. Two volumes of his bookFrom the Baltic Sea to the Bay of Bengalwere published just before theSoviet invasion of Lithuaniain June 1940; the third volume, in the works at a press, was destroyed.[6]

During theNazi occupation(1941–44) Poška started working as a manager of Vilnius Public Library No. 3.[1]Despite the dangers, Poška saved at least threeLithuanian Jewsby hiding them from the SS in his house. Poška was awarded the Life Saving Cross by thePresident of Lithuaniain 1998[1]and was recognized as theRighteous Among the Nationsby the Government of Israel in 2000. Despite Nazi orders to destroy Jewish books he concealed and preserved over 1,000 publications which were later transferred to the Jewish Museum.[15]

Easter table in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, mid-1950s

After theSoviets returned to Lithuaniain mid-1944, Poška was appointed as the head of the Library Department of Soviet Lithuania's Education Commissariat.[6]For refusing the orders fromJuozas Žiugždato destroy books published before the Soviet occupation, Poška was arrested in June 1945[2]and sentenced to imprisonment in a forced labor camp in Siberia.[6]He was first sent to a prison nearVelsk,Arkhangelsk Oblast,[16]and later to aforced labor campin theKomi Republic.[6]In 1948, his forced-labor sentence was replaced with a forced relocation to Central Asia without the right to ever return to Lithuania. His academic nature won him positions at several ethnographic museums of Central Asia in 1949–59, but due to his status of a political prisoner he could not assume leading posts and had trouble publishing his works.[17]He worked at a museum ofPetropavlin Kazakhstan (1949–53), theMuseum of Oshin Kyrgyzstan (1953–57),AndijanMuseum in Uzbekistan, and theState Museum of Dushanbein Tajikistan (1958–59). He also took part in various archaeological expeditions in Central Asia. While inOsh,Poška studied caves, particularly the Rusha-Unkur Cave or the Eagle Cave, of theSulayman Mountainand theirpetroglyphs.[18]During archaeological excavations in the cave, Poška found an inventory ofmicrolithsdated to theNeolithic.[19]

After Stalin's death in 1953, many cases of the Soviet political prisoners were re-examined by the Soviet authorities during thede-Stalinizationcampaign and Poška was allowed to return to Lithuania in 1959.[3]After his return home Poška worked as a lecturer, a correspondent of several newspapers, and the chairman of the reestablished Vilnius Esperantist Club in 1964–69.[4]As a former political prisoner, he remained suspect to Soviet authorities and was not allowed to continue academic activities or publish his books until thePerestroikareforms in 1985. Poška continued to travel. For example, in 1960, together with biologistTadas Ivanauskas,he visited theTigrovaya Balka Nature Reservein Tajikistan[20]and laterhitchhikedtoLeningradand Moldova.[3]In summer 1972, at age 70, he went on the last large journey.[3]It was a five-week motorbike ride to theMount Elbrusin theCaucasus Mountains,via theGeorgian Military Roadto Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan andSukhumion the Black sea.[6]The last decade of his life Poška spent under the piles of his rescued archive, trying and failing to publish it.[6]His major work, the eight-volume book on his journey to IndiaFrom the Baltic Sea to the Bay of Bengal,was published by his supporters already after his death.[20]

Honorary doctorate by the University of Calcutta[edit]

Poška's daughter Laimutė Kisielienė receives the regalia ofHonoris CausaD.Litt.,awarded to her father posthumously by the University of Calcutta

Before leaving Calcutta in 1936, Poška prepared and submitted hisPhD thesisinphysical anthropologyunder professorBiraja Sankar Guha,titledPhysical Affinities of Shina-speaking People of the Western Himalayas.[12]According to Poška's diary, his thesis was sent to theBritish Museumin London in 1936, and he himself was planning to travel to London to defend his thesis there. However, financial troubles delayed in his departure and the outbreak of World War II prevented him from completing this task.[12]

After his visit to Lithuania in 1966, Dr.Suniti Kumar Chatterjiagreed to help Poška recover his PhD dissertation from London and secure his degree.[12]Later, Poška wrote in his diary that he received a letter from Dr. Chatterji informing that the University of Calcutta has granted Poška the PhD. However, this could not be confirmed by the archives of University of Calcutta.[12]

In 2014, the Lithuanian Embassy inNew Delhitook the initiative of approaching the University of Calcutta with a proposal to posthumously award Poška with a doctoral degree. On 28 November 2014, Poška was conferred honoraryD.Litt.byKeshari Nath Tripathi,Governor of West Bengaland Chancellor of the University of Calcuttaex officio.Pranab Mukherjee,President of India, was also present at the occasion. The regalia were received by Laimutė Poškaitė, Antanas Poška's daughter.[12][21]To commemorate Poška's connection with the University of Calcutta, a memorial board was unveiled at the university's library on 16 January 2015.[22]

Publications[edit]

Poška's bibliography, published in 2006, numbers 3,756 entries.[1]Most of these are articles published in the press of Lithuania and other countries (India, USSR, Poland, UK) as well as in international Esperanto magazines. He wrote at least 30 articles in the Indian press between 1932 and 1935. Over 100 articles on India were published in the Lithuanian press. Poška's articles on his archaeological research in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were published in several newspapers and magazines of Central Asia and the archaeological journals in USSR, sometimes using an assumed name.[17]

Poška wrote numerous books, but only a handful was published:

  • Esperanto raktas(A Key to Esperanto), 1929 (Kaunas), republished in 1969 (Vilnius) and 2003 (Vilnius) – translation of a 1925 booklet published in Geneva[4]
  • Nuo Baltijos iki Bengalijos(From the Baltic Sea to the Bay of Bengal), first two volumes in 1939 (Kaunas), complete set of 8 volumes published in 2002–2012 (Klaipėda)
  • Indoeuropiečių istorijos pėdsakais(Tracing the Footsteps of the Indo-European History), 1988 (Vilnius)
  • Requiem,poetic miniatures, 1989 and 2004 (Vilnius) and 2005 (Kaunas) – written while in prison on pieces ofbirch barks[1]
  • Mano gyvenimo pasaka(The Tale of My Life), 2003 (Vilnius)

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdeAsauskienė, Aušra (2010)."Antanas Poška".Vilnijos vartai(in Lithuanian). Vilniaus apskrities Adomo Mickevičiaus viešoji biblioteka.Retrieved19 October2016.
  2. ^abcdefghJakubonienė, Roma."Antano Poškos biografija".Antanas Poška - pasaulio žmogus iš Gripkelių kaimo(in Lithuanian).Retrieved21 October2016.
  3. ^abcdefMičiulienė, Jūratė (13 March 2015)."Nuo Gripkelių kaimo iki Indijos"(in Lithuanian).Lietuvos žinios.Retrieved21 October2016.
  4. ^abcdefghŠilas, Vytautas (27 November 2014)."Esperantiškas Antano Poškos fenomenas"(PDF).Mokslo Lietuva.20(530): 4–5.ISSN1392-7191.
  5. ^abcdefghijklmVidūnas, Vytis (2015)."Didžioji Antano Poškos kelionė"(PDF).Šiaurietiški atsivėrimai(in Lithuanian).1(38): 70–76.ISSN1392-6810.
  6. ^abcdefghiIlgūnas, Gediminas (2002)."Lietuvių keliautojas Antanas Poška".Mokslas Ir Gyvenimas(in Lithuanian).4(532).ISSN0134-3084.
  7. ^abcTarailienė, Dalia (2007)."Žurnalisto, keliautojo, visuomenės ir kultūros veikėjo Mato Šalčiaus archyvinis palikimas Lietuvos nacionalinėje bibliotekoje"(PDF).Bibliografija: Mokslo darbai(in Lithuanian): 10–12.ISSN1392-1991.
  8. ^abStatinis, Gerimantas (2008). "Svečiuose pas 40 tautų".Pasiklydęs Amazonijoje: Mato Šalčiaus klajonių pėdsakais(in Lithuanian). Versus aureus.ISBN978-9955-34-113-0.
  9. ^abVidūnas, Vytis (2015)."Antano Poškos mokslinė veikla Indijoje"(PDF).Spectrum(in Lithuanian).22:40.ISSN1822-0347.
  10. ^Whitfield, Susan(20 July 2005)."STEIN, (Marc) Aurel".Encyclopædia Iranica.Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University.Retrieved30 October2016.
  11. ^Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1968).Balts and Aryans in Their Indo-European Background.Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study.OCLC368760.
  12. ^abcdefghiBanerjee, Sudeshna (23 November 2014)."Bengal honour for Baltic biker boy".The Telegraph.Archived fromthe originalon 30 March 2015.Retrieved27 October2016.
  13. ^Sinha, Kounteya (1 December 2013)."Unknown translations of Tagore's work emerge".The Times of India.Retrieved30 October2016.
  14. ^Tapinas, Laimonas; et al., eds. (1997)."Poška, Antanas"(PDF).Žurnalistikos enciklopedija(in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Pradai. p. 396.ISBN9986-776-62-7.
  15. ^"The Righteous Among The Nations".Yad Vashem.Retrieved26 October2016.
  16. ^Poška, Antanas (13 June 1946)."[Laiškas] / Poška Antanas - Tadui [Adomoniui]"(in Lithuanian). The Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.Retrieved30 October2016.
  17. ^abZemlickas, Gediminas (3 April 2008)."Didžiosios Antano Poškos kelionės".Mokslo Lietuva(in Lithuanian).7(385).ISSN1392-7191.
  18. ^Laiconas, Erikas (2003).Lietuvos speleologijos istorija(PDF)(in Lithuanian). Speleo-Info-Centras. pp. 47–48.
  19. ^National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic (2005)."Nomination of Sulaiman-Too Cultural Landscape"(PDF).UNESCO World Heritage Centre. p. 194.Retrieved30 October2016.
  20. ^abMilkevičiūtė, Giedrė (28 March 2013)."Antano Poškos misija - nešti žinią apie Lietuvą"(PDF).Žalgiris (Special Supplement to Respublika).Nacionalinių vertybių rinkimai (in Lithuanian) (210).ISSN1392-5873.
  21. ^Sinha, Kounteya (9 November 2014)."Calcutta University to confer posthumous doctorate to Lithuanian traveller and anthropologist Antanas Poska".The Times of India.Retrieved30 October2016.
  22. ^"A memorial plaque to famous traveler Antanas Poška unveiled in Calcutta".Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of India. 16 January 2015.Retrieved30 October2016.
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